Neuroscience of Addiction (NofA) Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Center (ABC), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Neurosci Res. 2023 Oct;101(10):1521-1537. doi: 10.1002/jnr.25206. Epub 2023 Jul 4.
Social attunement (SA)-the tendency to harmonize behavior with the social environment-has been proposed to drive the escalation of alcohol use in adolescence, while reducing use in adulthood. Little is known about how heightened social sensitivity in adolescence may interact with neural alcohol cue reactivity-a marker of alcohol use disorder-and its relationship to alcohol use severity over time. The aims of this study were to test whether (1) adolescents and adults differ in social alcohol cue reactivity in the nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate cortex, and right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and (2) age moderates the relationship between social alcohol cue reactivity and social attunement, measures of drinking at baseline, and changes in drinking over time. A sample of male adolescents (16-18 years) and adults (29-35 years) completed an fMRI social alcohol cue-exposure task at baseline and an online follow-up two to three years later. No main effects of age or drinking measures were observed in social alcohol cue reactivity. However, age significantly moderated associations of social alcohol cue reactivity in the mPFC and additional regions from exploratory whole-brain analyses with SA, with a positive association in adolescents and negative association in adults. Significant age interactions emerged only for SA in predicting drinking over time. Adolescents with higher SA scores escalated drinking, while adults with higher SA scores reduced drinking. These findings warrant further research on SA as a risk and protective factor and suggest that social processes influence cue reactivity differentially in male adolescents and adults.
社交协调（SA）——即与社会环境协调行为的倾向——被认为是导致青少年饮酒行为升级的原因，同时也降低了成年人的饮酒量。然而，人们对青少年时期增强的社交敏感性如何与神经酒精线索反应性（一种酒精使用障碍的标志物）相互作用，以及它与随着时间推移的饮酒严重程度的关系知之甚少。本研究的目的是检验以下两点：（1）青少年和成年人在伏隔核、前扣带皮层和右侧内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）的社交酒精线索反应性方面是否存在差异；（2）年龄是否调节了社交酒精线索反应性与社交协调、基线饮酒测量值以及随时间变化的饮酒量之间的关系。一项由男性青少年（16-18 岁）和成年人（29-35 岁）组成的样本在基线时完成了 fMRI 社交酒精线索暴露任务，并在两年到三年后在线进行了随访。在社交酒精线索反应性方面，年龄或饮酒测量值均无主要影响。然而，年龄显著调节了 mPFC 以及来自探索性全脑分析的其他区域的社交酒精线索反应性与 SA 之间的关联，在青少年中呈正相关，在成年人中呈负相关。只有在 SA 预测随时间推移的饮酒量时才出现显著的年龄交互作用。SA 得分较高的青少年饮酒量增加，而 SA 得分较高的成年人饮酒量减少。这些发现进一步证实了 SA 作为风险和保护因素的作用，并表明社交过程对男性青少年和成年人的线索反应性有不同的影响。
